Influence of the structural characteristic of pyrolysis products on thermal stability of styrene-butadiene rubber composites reinforced by different particle sized kaolinites

A series of rubber composites were prepared by blending styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) latex and the different particle sized kaolinites. The thermal stabilities of the rubber composites were characterized using thermogravimetry, digital photography, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Kaolinite SBR composites showed much greater thermal stability when compared with that of the pure SBR. With the increase of kaolinite particle size, the pyrolysis products became much looser; the char layer and crystalline carbon content gradually decreased in the pyrolysis residues. The pyrolysis residues of the SBR composites filled with the different particle sized kaolinites showed some remarkable changes in structural characteristics. The increase of kaolinite particle size was not beneficial to form the compact and stable crystalline carbon in the pyrolysis process, and resulted in a negative influence in improving the thermal stability of kaolinite/SBR composites.     

Impact of Magnesium(II) on Beryllium Fluorides in Solutions Studied by 19F NMR Spectroscopy

Beryllium fluorides are widely used in protein phosphorylation studies to get stable transition state analogs or near attack conformers, which has attracted much attention. BeF₃^? is one of the optimal phosphoryl (PO₃^?) analogs for its identical geometry and charge, and Mg²⁺ naturally participates in the phosphoryl binding in biological systems. In solutions, BeF₃^? coexists with other beryllium fluorides (BeF₄^2?, BeF₂ and BeF⁺) and magnesium fluorides, and there are equilibriums between these species. In this article, ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy was applied to the investigation of the impact of magnesium(II) on beryllium fluorides. It has been found that when Mg²⁺ was introduced into the solutions, the chemical shifts, the intensities and the line widths of ¹⁹F signals of various beryllium fluoride complexes were changed. After ionic strength correction, these effects were remarkable only for BeF₄^2? and BeF₃^?, especially BeF₄^2?, when the concentration of the fluoride ion is relatively low. Mechanism of the effects is proposed which involves ion pair formation between Mg²⁺ and beryllium fluorides.     

Zwitterionic Polydopamine Engineered Interface for In Vivo Sensing with High Biocompatibility

Electrochemical sensing performance is often compromised by electrode biofouling (e.g., proteins nonspecific binding) in complex biological fluids; however, the design and construction of a robust biointerface remains a great challenge. Herein, inspired by nature, we demonstrate a robust polydopamine-engineered biointerfacing, to tailing zwitterionic molecules (i.e., sulfobetaine methacrylate, SBMA) through Michael Addition. The SBMA-PDA biointerface can resist proteins nonspecific binding in complex biological fluids while enhancing interfacial electron transfer and electrochemical stability of the electrode. In addition, this sensing interface can be integrated with tissue-implantable electrode for in vivo analysis with improved sensing performance, preserving ca. 92.0% of the initial sensitivity after 2 h of implantation in brain tissue, showing low acute neuroinflammatory responses and good stability both in normal and in Parkinson′s disease (PD) rat brain tissue.     

Single-Carbon-Fiber-Powered Microsensor for In Vivo Neurochemical Sensing with High Neuronal Compatibility

The development of new principles and techniques with high neuronal compatibility for quantitatively monitoring the dynamics of neurochemicals is essential for deciphering brain chemistry and function but remains a great challenge. We herein report a neuron-compatible method for in vivo neurochemical sensing by powering a single carbon fiber through spontaneous bipolar electrochemistry as a new sensing platform. By using ascorbic acid as a model target to prove the concept, we found that the single-carbon-fiber-powered microsensor exhibited a good response, high stability and, more importantly, excellent neuronal compatibility. The microsensor was also highly compatible with electrophysiological recording, thus enabling the synchronous recording of both chemical and electrical signals. The sensing principle could be developed for in vivo monitoring of various neurochemicals in the future by rationally designing and tuning the electrochemical reactions at the two poles of the carbon fiber.     

A Green and Wide-Scope Approach for Chiroptical Sensing of Organic Molecules through Biomimetic Recognition in Water

Optical chirality sensing has attracted a lot of interest due to its potential in high-throughput screening in chirality analysis. A molecular sensor is required to convert the chirality of analytes into optical signals. Although many molecular sensors have been reported, sensors with wide substrate scope remain to be developed. Herein, we report that the amide naphthotube-based chirality sensors have an unprecedented wide scope for chiroptical sensing of organic molecules. The substrates include, but are not limited to common organic products in asymmetric catalysis, chiral molecules with inert groups or remote functional groups from their chiral centers, natural products and their derivatives, and chiral drugs. The effective chirality sensing is based on biomimetic recognition in water and on effective chirality transfer through guest-induced formation of a chiral conformation of the sensors. Furthermore, the sensors can be used in real-time monitoring on reaction kinetics in water and in determining absolute configurations and ee values of the products in asymmetric catalysis.     

Lattice Distortion in Hollow Multi-Shelled Structures for Efficient Visible-Light CO2 Reduction with a SnS2/SnO2 Junction

Precise control of the micro-/nanostructures of nanomaterials, such as hollow multi-shelled structures (HoMSs), has shown its great advantages in various applications. Now, the crystal structure of building blocks of HoMSs are controlled by introducing the lattice distortion in HoMSs, for the first time. The lattice distortion located at the nanoscale interface of SnS₂/SnO₂ can provide additional active sites, which not only provide the catalytic activity under visible light but also improve the separation of photoexcited electron–hole pairs. Combined with the efficient light utilization, the natural advantage of HoMSs, a record catalytic activity was achieved in solid–gas system for CO₂ reduction, with an excellent stability and 100 % CO selectivity without using any sensitizers or noble metals.     

Visualization and In Situ Ablation of Intracellular Bacterial Pathogens through Metabolic Labeling

Protected by the host cells, the hidden intracellular bacteria are typically difficult to kill by common antibiotics and cannot be visualized without complex cellular pretreatments. Herein, we successfully developed a bacteria-metabolizable dual-functional probe TPEPy-d -Ala, which is based on d -alanine and a photosensitizer with aggregation-induced emission for fluorescence turn-on imaging of intracellular bacteria in living host cells and photodynamic ablation in situ. Once metabolically incorporated into bacterial peptidoglycan, the intramolecular motions of TPEPy-d -Ala are inhibited, leading to an enhanced fluorescent signal, which allows the clear visualization of the intracellular bacteria. Moreover, TPEPy-d -Ala can effectively ablate the labeled intracellular bacteria in situ owing to covalent ligation to peptidoglycan, yielding a low intracellular minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 20±0.5 μg mL⁻¹, much more efficient than that of a commonly used antibiotic, vancomycin.     

Theoretical investigations of spin-orbit coupling and intersystem crossing in reaction carbon dioxide activated by [Re(CO)2]+

In order to further explore the detailed reaction mechanism of carbon dioxide activated by [Re(CO)₂]⁺ complex, CCSD(T) methods was performed to determine related potential energy surface (PES). Crossing point is determined by using a partially optimized method. The result shows that larger spin-orbital coupling (155.37 cm⁻¹) and intersystem crossing probabilities in spin-forbidden region causes the electron to spin flip at the minimum energy crossing point and access to the lower singlet PES. Nonadiabatic rate constant k is estimated to be quite rapid, so transition state (¹TS1) is rate-controlled steps. In addition, the electronic structure of oxygen-atom transfer process is further analyzed by localized molecular orbital and Mayer bond order. The analysis finds that the form of main bonding orbital is the electron contribution from the p(O) in CO₂ to the empty d(Re) orbital.     

Constructing spin-adiabatic states for the modeling of spin-crossing reactions. I. A shared-orbital implementation

In the modeling of spin-crossing reactions, it has become popular to directly explore the spin-adiabatic surfaces. Specifically, through constructing spin-adiabatic states from a two-state Hamiltonian (with spin-orbit coupling matrix elements) at each geometry, one can readily employ advanced geometry optimization algorithms to acquire a “transition state” structure, where the spin crossing occurs. In this work, we report the implementation of a fully-variational spin-adiabatic approach based on Kohn-Sham density functional theory spin states (sharing the same set of molecular orbitals) and the Breit-Pauli one-electron spin-orbit operator. For three model spin-crossing reactions (predissociation of N₂O, singlet-triplet conversion in CH₂, and CO addition to Fe(CO)₄), the spin-crossing points were obtained. Our results also indicated the Breit-Pauli one-electron spin-orbit coupling can vary significantly along the reaction pathway on the spin-adiabatic energy surface. On the other hand, due to the restriction that low-spin and high-spin states share the same set of molecular orbitals, the acquired spin-adiabatic energy surface shows a cusp (ie, a first-order discontinuity) at the crossing point, which prevents the use of standard geometry optimization algorithms to pinpoint the crossing point. An extension with this restriction removed is being developed to achieve the smoothness of spin-adiabatic surfaces.